One of this blog's readers stamped his feet and held his breath and refused to believe this information when it was reported in the post below. I thought I'd take the time to make a further citation and to prove conclusively that when it comes to equal pay for equal work, Sen. Barack Obama talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk. In the meanwhile, Sen. John McCain is the real deal. This is, by the way, why Obama is having trouble closing the deal with Democratic women.

This column appeared on the SeattlePI website. It is from Deroy Murdock, a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. A piece of the column follows:

"The watchdog group called LegiStorm posts online the salaries for Capitol Hill staffers. 'We have no political affiliations and no political purpose except to make the workings of Congress as transparent as possible,' its website explains. Parsing LegiStorm's official data, gleaned from the Secretary of the Senate, offers a fascinating glimpse at pay equity in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body.

"The most recent statistics are for the half-year from Oct. 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, excluding interns and focusing on full-time personnel. For someone who worked only until, say, last Feb. 29, extrapolating up to six months' service simplifies this analysis. Doubling these half-year figures illustrates how a year's worth of Senate employees' paychecks should look.

"Why this disparity? One reason may be the under-representation of women in Obama's highest-compensated ranks. Among Obama's five best-paid advisors, only one was a woman. Among his top 20, seven were women.

"Again, on average, Obama's female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make. This figure certainly exceeds the 77-cent threshold that Obama's campaign website condemns. However, 83 cents do not equal $1. In spite of this 17-cent gap between Obama's rhetoric and reality, he chose to chide GOP presidential contender John McCain on this issue.

"On average, according to these data, women in John McCain's office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart -- while adding $10,726 to her annual income -- by leaving Barack Obama's office and going to work for John McCain.

"How could this be?

"One explanation could be that women compose a majority of McCain's highest-paid aides. Among his top-five best-compensated staffers, three are women. Of his 20-highest-salaried employees, 13 are women. The Republican presidential nominee relies on women -- much more than men -- for advice at the highest, and thus, best-paid levels."